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[deathpunch578]

The idea I have is to completely hollow out the mountains and build my fort from there, any tips?

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here is my fort area

[TubaDragoness]

From what I hear, loose items are the main cause of FPS death these days. If you haven't already done much with them, you might want to research/experiment with atom smashers to get rid of surplus stone.

How deep do you want your hollowing to go - match ground level? Dig down to the first cavern layer? The magma sea?

[deathpunch578]

my goal is to eventually reach the magma sea, but I will start out small scale and expand (plan:one mountain, mountain range, caverns (going to be very !!FUN!!), as much of the magma sea I can get)

[Sarmatian123]

1. You need to take care of edges. Smooth them and where is sand on top build floor and ramps. Trees are your enemies here. When ramp going down around trees, you need to build floor 3-6 tiles from the edge. Trees block access, but animal still spawn on edges. Make sure every side have ramps, so you get access to every of 4 edges. For your hunters, wandering animals, if not for merchant's wagons.

2. Always smooth every level of wall after channeling down. Be paranoid. Seriously. Your worst problem could prove channeling suddenly into aquifer, which is a huge issue when digging into mountain side. In sand you have to make obsidian.

3. When you lower terrain to lowest level (usually level of the river in area), don't forget you will go missing soil for under ground and above ground farming. Collapse by cave in first lower layer, so you get under ground soil. Build walls on top of it. Cave in top most soil level for above ground level farming and pastures on top of those walls. You can deconstruct walls after cave in and enjoy under ground farm plots in your fortress. Never ever cave in upon dug out tunnels and rooms. Constructed floors won't survive a cave in. Ensure always the layer is solid wall, before caving anything above.

4. You can leave walls as smoothed rocks, but inside of fortress you need to channel in for above ground-light and then roof it from outside.

5. Water. Without river, aquifer or under  ground river, you are doomed to either muddy dark pools or equally muddy cavern cisterns. Make sure to pump water first. Don't use wells directly on those. Make sure your fortress cistern is rather deep and tiny, then shallow and wide. Build floors on bottom and all walls on sides. If you get lucky you may get away without any mud on bottom. No water means no obsidian from magma and you can't buy water these days from merchants. Even buying stones and logs is problematic.

6. Ensure your fortress is dried and mud-free after building _underground_ 3 z-levels mass pit. Don't build it on surface. Else you will have fun with suddenly free goblins and trolls, while trying to pit them. LOLZ!

7. Ensure your entrance is on 1st under ground level, so your Dwarves will clean entrance from any squabbles with wild live and see that bridge is under roof, so you get easier to clean entrance from eternal blood pool created by rain. Though cleaning in next DF 0.44.06 will be improved by Toady immensely, so I won't even mention issue with spilled alcohol then.

[They Got Leader]

I'd also recommend reading about Undergrotto! I feel like it is along a similar vein as to what you are trying to do, though this was made many years ago.

I digress, FPS death from too many items is very common, and can cause severe lag, as commented on above.

[Sarmatian123]

I digress, FPS death from too many items is very common, and can cause severe lag, as commented on above.

Nothing quantum stockpiles and atom smasher can't help with.

[They Got Leader]

I digress, FPS death from too many items is very common, and can cause severe lag, as commented on above.

Nothing quantum stockpiles and atom smasher can't help with.

Aye, that is very true. You can also lower the visitor cap, turn off temperature, weather, and invaders to help. One of the biggest things you can do is reduce the size of the embark area. That size is liable to give you some latency issues later on.